I wonder how many
times I had already heard this robotic voice. Yet, it was still not
enough. More. This did nothing to satisfy my hunger.

However, I had been
running without a pause ever since I left the capital. I stopped to
catch my breath. A full moon had risen high into the cloudless sky
and illuminated the dead goblin’s corpse. If I was hunting
normally, I would have cut off both ears as evidence to claim my
prize, although I could not afford to waste time right now. Once my
breathing had stabilised, I stepped over the corpse and headed for my
next prey.

Hm? I could hear
footsteps chasing me from the meadow. No, not just from behind. From
the front and two sides, footsteps on the grass were approaching from
all directions. There was quite a number of them. It seemed like
while I had been focused on running around and hunting in this area,
the goblins began to view me as a threat. The goblin being hunting
woken up and called on its comrades for assistance in an effort to
defeat me, eliminating harm to their kind.

Sensing their
advance, I chose a place with relatively low bushes and halted. Then,
the sounds of those closely following footsteps died down one after
another. Looking around, I saw that the goblins had surrounded me.

There were roughly
50 of them, perhaps even more. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the
night vision, I could clearly see the goblins.

The opponents were
familiar monsters, Goblin Fighters and Goblin Guards. With Greed, I
could slice through all their swords and shields. Besides, no matter
how many more of these goblins appeared, the strategy would remain
the same, and they were no match for my current state of starvation.

With these red
pupils, any goblin with a lower status was simply immobilised when
they met my gaze. Glancing around constantly at the goblins who froze
in their tracks, I steadily killed them off one by one. Some of the
goblins noticed something strange and tried to escape, however, it
was too late for all of them.

Although they had
intended to form an enclosure to quickly defeat me, it had actually
made it easier for me to hunt them as they had all assembled
together. With that, I killed the last one. The goblin fell down on
top of the other corpses.

Whew. I had calmed
down just a little. Using Greed who had been polished to a
mirror-like shine, I looked at my reflection. My eyes were still red.

“I’ve eaten
quite a lot, but my hunger still hasn’t subsided…”

I had killed over
100 goblins, however, this state of starvation continued. Upset, I
asked Greed about it.

“How long until
this state is released?”

“Hm. In your
condition, it seems that the goblin level will not be satisfactory.
You should hunt the higher-ranked Hobgoblins.”

Taking Greed’s
suggestion, I left the Goblin Meadow and headed towards the western
forest. Here was the place called Hobgob Forest. Goblins from the
meadow who had gained enough power moved to live in this forest as
they evolved into Hobgoblins.

There were three
types of Hobgoblins; Hobgoblin Fighter, Hobgoblin Guard, and
Hobgoblin Archer. The fighters and guards should be similar to their
goblin counterparts. The problem was the archer. Although their
numbers were few, they concealed themselves well in bushes and their
arrows flew far. The most problematic thing was that they covered
their arrowheads with faecal waste, and if hit by them, they could
cause a dangerous infection. Warriors of the Royal Capital referred
to these Hobgoblin archers as faecal archers.

I had heard of this
information from some of the Heart Family servants who used to be
warriors in their youthful days, and had taught me a lot during our
mealtimes. A majority of the heroic stories ─ he bragged a lot, but
they were quite interesting so I listened to them all. Feeling
grateful to him, I proceeded with caution.

Since Hobgoblins
were not nocturnal creatures, they should be fast asleep at the
moment unless I made a commotion. The point was that I should attack
them while they slept as I did with the other goblins.

Look, there was one
of them. Leaning asleep against a large tree was a Hobgoblin whose
height matched mine. Its physique was much more muscular and firm.
The skin colour was hard to tell… Although as expected of a
higher-ranked goblin species, it was greenish.

<Appraisal>
skill has been activated.

Hobgoblin Fighter
Lv12

HP: 230

Strength: 340

MP: 110

Spirit: 110

Agility: 230

Skill: Two-handed
Sword Technique

Hobgoblin Fighter
huh? There was a large sword lying at its feet, one that it probably
used to attack with. It had a Two-handed Sword Technique skill too.
The status was not a concern.

As I approached
quietly, I noticed another demon behind the large tree. From the
shield next to it, I could guess which type this Hobgoblin was,
however, I still used <Appraisal>.

Hobgoblin Guard Lv12

HP: 440

Strength: 220

MP: 110

Spirit: 110

Agility: 110

Skill: HP
Enhancement (medium)

Oh, it possessed a
HP Enhancement (medium) skill? As I had expected last time, there
seemed to be several stages in the status enhancement system. Since
there was (small) and (medium), then from this flow, (large)
certainly existed.

After I finished
confirming, I first sliced the neck of the sleeping Hobgoblin Guard.
It died within a deep sleep, passed away without suffering.

Now then, one
monster remained… Ah, it seemed to have woken up. The sound of my
sword slicing through the neck of the guard disturbed the Hobgoblin
Fighter, who sensed something was amiss and tried to call out. It was
probably intending to alert its friends. I could not let that happen.
I thrust Greed into its mouth lined with yellow teeth.